The FAO-IGG inter-sessional meeting was held during August 12-13, 2017 at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo Hotel with the participation of a large number of foreign delegates representing tea growing and consuming countries....

World’s ever longest Tea Party organized by Sri Lanka held on 06 July 2017. While many countries from east to west across the world celebrated at 5.00 pm Sri Lanka time in every time zone and the local event was at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. This celebration was organized b...

The TRI Low country Regional Centre and St. Joachim factory celebrated their Golden Jubilee in 2014. Commemorating the Golden Jubilee, a series of events viz. an “Open Day” for stakeholders, felicitation of retired officers with long years of service and religious ...

National project launched for popularizing the use of machines in tea smallholdings sector

Launching the national project for popularizing the use of machineries in tea smallholdings, the Minister of Plantation Industries, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe handed over 21 million Rupees worth of machines and equipment to 50 societies of tea smallholders and 25 bought leaf t...

The third revision of the Corporate Plan of the TRISL is now prepared. It embodies the vision of the management, a commitment of its senior managers by way of its mission and of all those involved in making realistic goals and objectives....

The division engaged in developing improved cultivars/ planting materials to cope with the complex requirements determined by agro-ecology, biotic and abiotic stresses and consumer preferences of the end-product based on quality in the international market. In achieving the above objectives current research and development activities are being aimed at following areas:

Key Research Areas

To develop high yielding tea cultivars incorporated with other desirable characteristics that are suitable for various tea growing agro-ecologies in Sri Lanka.

Maintenance of national tea germplasm and activities related to germplasm conservation, characterization and evaluation for rational utilization of germplasm in tea crop improvement program.

Development of plant cell and tissue culture techniques to supplement the conventional tea breeding program.

Major Achievements

An economically viable vegetative propagation method was discovered and established for the first time in tea in 1950s.

Release of seminal series of TRI 2000, 3000 and 4000 cultivars aiming to increase productivity of tea plantations

Perfection of an efficient ex-vitro rooting method requiring less time for the micro shoots to produce vigorous rooting system while achieving high survival rates of micropropagated plants during acclimatization.

Successful integration of micropropagation technique into the conventional breeding program authenticating its practical application to reduce the time taken to develop new cultivars by 6 years